Other forms: situations
A situation is the way things stand at a particular moment, taken as a whole. A difficult situation, the situation in the north, explain the situation to me.
It is a general word doing general work, and it is often the right one precisely because it commits to nothing. Two notes. In the situation is wrong for most uses — English says in this situation or in that situation, with a determiner. And situation once meant a job, which survives only in the old newspaper heading Situations Vacant. Careful writers are warned against situation as padding — a crisis situation is just a crisis — and that warning is worth heeding.
1nounsituationThe way things are at a particular time.~61%
“The situation changed completely after the vote.”
synonyms: circumstances, state of affairs
2nounsetA set of conditions somebody is in.~37%
“She is in a difficult situation and nobody is helping.”
3nounpositionThe position of a building or place.~2%
“The hotel has a fine situation above the bay.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 16 sentences found in the wild and placed 16 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
situation is a state of affairs.
Latin situs meant a site or position, and Medieval Latin situatio was the placing of a thing. A situation was originally where something physically stood — a house in a fine situation — and the modern meaning is that picture moved from geography to circumstance.
Latin
situs — a site
Medieval Latin
situatio — position, situation
Middle French
situation
Middle English
situacioun
English, today
situation
Built from
From Middle English situacioun, situacion, from Middle French situation, from Medieval Latin situatio (“position, situation”), from situare (“to locate, place”), from Latin situs (“a site”). by surface analysis, en + situate + -ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA